African American poets

and benefactor of the Beats Generation, Jack Kerouac prevailed for his composition techniques and mongrel forms of African American culture, style, and music with a twist of European literary cultures to mirror Kerouac's ambitions of both to join the standard artistic convention furthermore to restructure it (Johnson). The Beats Generation offered a critique of middle class American values. "Beat" differently characterizes as a curtailed form of "beaten down" or of "beatific." The word…

for one person may not be good for another even within the same family. In 1973, Alice Walker who is a novelist, short story writer, poet and a political activist, wrote “Everyday Use”. “Everyday Use” is a short story that follows two sisters, Maggie and Dee, who live with their mother in the deep south. Maggie is shy and humble and embraces her African-American culture and heritage while her other sister Dee has a problem accepting their culture and heritage. There are several examples in…

Scott-Heron – “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” (1970) Gil Scott-Heron, born April 1, 1949 in Chicago, Illinois. He was an American soul and jazz poet, musician and author, known for his work as a spoken-word performer in the 1970s and the 1980s. He was raced in Tennessee by his mother, his father was from Jamaica, but he was not in his life. He was one of three African-American students to be a part of the first integrated class at his junior high school where he suffered racial…

A strong yet controversial figure in American poetry, Nikki Giovanni rose into fame through the social mayhems of the late-1960s and early-1970s. Although Giovanni’s poetry was originally recognized for unique powerful “Black Power” point of view, Giovanni 's poetry covers a wide variety of themes—from young innocence to intense sexuality. Giovanni 's poems are highly personal statements of anger and love, capable of tenderness, humor, and irony. They are dynamically individualistic—even to the…

thoughts about their race. This has been an ongoing problem in the African American community in the U.S. There have been incidents that have occurred that have been made internationally known like, the beating of Rodney King in 1991 and more recently the murder of Trayvon Martin. These events cause fear in the African American community when the police are involved. In the Rodney King beating consisted of a videotape of an African American male being beat continuously by four police officers…

there is a dramatic difference in the risk of incarceration for persons who do not complete high school. Research by Bruce Western and Becky Pettit shows that 68percent of African American male high school dropouts had served time in prison by the age of 34 (Western & Pettit, 2010). Consider this: African Americans make up an estimated 15 percent of drug users, but they account for 37 percent of those arrested on drug charges, 59 percent of those convicted and 74 percent of all drug…

Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is an excellent example of an effective argument; it was written in response to an editorial addressing the issue of Negro demonstrations and segregation in Alabama at the time. He writes in a way that makes his argument approachable; he is not attacking his opposition, which consists of eight Alabama clergymen who wrote the editorial. This is illustrated in his opening sentence: “My dear Fellow Clergymen” (464). King was an activist for…

I, however, believe this to show Malcolm X’s sense of urgency toward the civil rights situation at hand. Countless times in this address he calls to his fellow African Americans to inform themselves to the “ballot” or political atmosphere of their community. In place of violence, Malcolm X believes “that the black man should control the politics and the politicians in his own community”. He wants his fellow black citizens to better themselves and improve their communities using political…

Mississippi Burning takes place in the 60s and there was a great lack of justice back then. White people judged the black people by the color of their skin and the police department was corrupt. Another theme in the movie could also be friendship, because of the main characters’, Ward and Anderson, development of their friendship. In the beginning of the movie it is not easy for them to work as a team, mainly because they are from different places and have different opinions on how to solve the…

Other schools of low income minorities show similar educational achievement gaps. Even with poverty stricken minority communities like the one George Washington Community school is in, there are ways to shorten the racial achievement gap. One such way is by creating out of school activities to encourage students to learn and stay in school. This along with the help of the community have changed the the graduation rate greatly. From 30 percent before George Washington Community school was…